Assessing the 2023-24 Kansas basketball team: The Jayhawks worst squad in Bill Self era?

Coming off a 76-46 regular season-ending loss to Houston, the outlook of a Kansas basketball season has not looked this grim in a very long time. Looking back after the campaign, the current Jayhawks squad could be considered the worst in the 21st century.

Despite entering as the preseason No. 1 team, the season has not lived nearly up to expectations. The team lost Texas transfer and presumed starter Arterio Morris in September, who would never play a game in a Jayhawk uniform. That has left the squad depleted of depth and riddled with other issues such as injuries and poor perimeter defense.

The Jayhawks sit at 22-9 heading into the Big 12 Tournament with eight conference losses — the most during the Bill Self tenure was previously six. Assuming they cannot make it all the way in the conference or NCAA tournaments, they would finish with more than 10 losses for the first time since 1988-89.

Kansas set all kinds of unwanted records yesterday. It was the program's first 30-point Big 12 loss since 2000 and the first time they scored fewer than 50 points in a conference game since Feb. 9, 1982, vs. Missouri. The Jayhawks also lost by 29 points to Texas Tech last month and were defeated in road games against two of the league's bottom three schools.

Things will not get easier for KU down the stretch, as star center Hunter Dickinson dislocated his shoulder in the defeat and could miss the remainder of the season. Kevin McCullar has also been dealing with a bone bruise in his knee that held him out of multiple games during February.

The 9-8 stretch Kansas is riding since the UCF loss in January is the worst stretch during the Bill Self era. It is already the middle of March and the Jayhawks have only gotten worse over the course of the season. This team is lining up to be worse than the 2018-19 team which broke the Big 12 conference title streak and was also ranked No. 1 before the year began.

We are one week from Selection Sunday, and Kansas will likely be selected as a No. 4 seed if they can win at least one game in the Big 12 Tournament. But even though March Madness can be magical, most Kansas basketball fans would agree they are not confident in this year's team to make a deep run.